Missing

Scientists find missing enzyme for tuberculosis iron scavenging pathway

Scientists have discovered that a protein that was originally believed to be involved in tuberculosis antibiotic resistance is actually a "missing enzyme" from the biosynthetic pathway for an agent used by the bacteria to scavenge iron. The research appears as the "Paper of the Week" in the April 8 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molec...

Found: Missing sequence of the human Y chromosome

Scientists report today in the journal GenomeResearch that they have successfully cloned and characterized apreviously intractable DNA sequence: a 554-kilobase-pair genomicsegment near the centromere of the human Y chromosome. This sequencecontains eight putatively active genes that could be implicated insex-associated height differences and gonadal tumor development. Thispericentrom...

Researchers find missing genes of ancient organism

Yale scientists report in the journal Nature that the "missing" genes for tRNA in an ancient parasite are made up by splicing together sequences in distant parts of the DNA genome. The research led by Professor Dieter Söll in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale focuses on the most ancient organism with a known genome sequence. Nanoarchaeum equitans, is a member...

Missing Receptor Molecule Causes Tumor Growth

A missing receptor molecule contributes to the growth of tumors in human ovaries. This surprisingly evident connection has now been proven by a team at the Medical University of Vienna, who published their data in the science journal Molecular Cancer Research. The team, who is supported by funding from the Austrian Science Fund FWF, also discovered the possible genetic reason why the receptor mol...

'Sinkers' provide missing piece in deep-sea puzzle

One of the biggest questions in modern oceanography is how animals in the deep sea get enough to eat. Marine biologists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) recently published a paper that helps answer this question, at least for animals that live on the deep seafloor off the coast of Central California. After analyzing hundreds of hours of deep-sea video, Bruce Robison and his...

Missing fossil link 'Dallasaurus' found

When amateur fossil finder Van Turner discovered a small vertebra at a construction site near Dallas 17 years ago, he knew the creature was unlike anything in the fossil record. Scientists now know the significance of Turner's fossil as the origin of an extinct line of lizards with an evolutionary twist: a land-dwelling species that became fully aquatic. Turner took the remains to paleonto...

Hepatitis B accounts for 40 percent of 'missing' Asian women

In a groundbreaking, sure-to-be-controversial new study, Emily Oster (a graduate student in economics at Harvard University) argues that excess female mortality, such as infanticide, may not be the only cause of uncommonly high male to female ratios in many Asian countries. It has long been observed that the relative number of males is higher in certain Asian countries than in the West, where it...

South Pacific plant may be missing link in evolution of flowering plants

Bottlenose dolphins that reside in designated Special Areas of Conservation throughout the UK, including Dorset, Anglesey and Cornwall, might be at risk from pile driving. The frequency range of pile driving noise could interfere with their ability to communicate, find food and avoid predators. This has the potential to affect their behaviour, health and their ability to breed successfully. Lacta...

Does missing gene point to nocturnal existence for early mammals?

A gene that makes cells in the eye receptive to light is missing in humans, researchers have discovered. The findings ?published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Biology ?reveal how our experience of the light environme...

Scientists close in on missing carbon sink

Forests in the United States and other northern mid- and upper-latitude regions are playing a smaller role in offsetting global warming than previously thought, according to a study appearing in Science this week. The study, which sheds light on the so-called missing carbon sink, concludes that intact tropical forests are removing an unexpectedly high proportion of carbon dioxide from the atmo...